When a UGC video comes back wrong, the creator usually isn't the problem. The brief is. "Here's the product link, make something fun for TikTok" leaves every important decision to someone who has known your product for ten minutes: what it's for, who it's for, what it must never claim, and where the video will run.
A good brief fits on one page. It tells the creator the one thing the viewer should take away and the rules they can't break, and then gets out of the way. We wrote this template from the brief our AI influencers' ad manager writes before every product video, and it works the same way for a human creator.
One page, one message.
The template
Copy this, fill it in, and send it with the product.
Product: name, one-line description, link. The one message: the single thing a viewer should understand after watching. Who it's for: one specific kind of person, in one specific situation. The moment: the everyday situation where the product earns its place. Must show: the one feature to demonstrate, and how it's really used. Never say or show: claims, comparisons and uses that aren't allowed. Length and format: seconds, aspect ratio, platform. Call to action: what the viewer should do next, and the exact link or code.
A good AI UGC ad is decided before anything is generated: in about 60 words of script. Here is the five-beat structure our AI influencers' producer writes to, how many words fit in 20 to 30 seconds, and the mistakes that make a script sound like an ad.
Disclosure: how the video and caption mark it as an ad.
Usage rights: where, how long and in what form you can use the video.
Deadline and review: when the first version is due, and how many rounds of changes.
Assets: product photos, a reference video or two, brand do's and don'ts.
Now, field by field.
The one message
This is the field that decides the video. Not a list of features: one sentence a viewer could repeat to a friend.
Weak: "Showcase our innovative design, long battery life and premium materials."
Better: "You can ask it things without taking your phone out of your pocket."
If you can't write it in one sentence, the creator can't film it in thirty seconds. Every other feature belongs on the product page.
Who it's for, and the moment
Name one person in one situation, not a demographic. "Busy professionals aged 25 to 40" gives the creator nothing to film. "Someone with both hands full and a question they need answered now" gives them a scene.
Then describe the moment the product earns its place: the commute, the kitchen at 7 a.m., the laundromat, the gig. Creator videos that sell tend to open on a real situation rather than on the product; when we studied the top creator gadget ads frame by frame, almost all of them did. The brief should suggest the moment, not script it.
Must show
Pick the one demonstration that proves the one message, and describe how the product is really used: how it's held, worn, switched on, where it sits. This is what the creator needs to get right, and it's where AI-made videos most often go wrong, so be specific: "clipped to the collar, small light on the top edge, the answer comes from the device, not the phone."
The most important part of the brief to put in writing, and the one most often left out. Include:
Claims you can't back up. Battery life, health effects, "the best", "clinically proven", anything a regulator would ask you to prove.
Things the product doesn't do. Waterproof if it isn't, works without an app if it doesn't.
Competitors. Whether the creator may name them, and how.
Sensitive territory. Medical or financial advice, children, anything your category's rules restrict.
Creators may only describe a product they've actually tried, honestly; the FTC's guide for influencers, Disclosures 101, is clear that they can't make up an experience or make claims that would need proof the brand doesn't have. A clear "never" list protects both of you.
The 'never' list matters as much as the 'must show'.
Length, format and platform
Say where the video will run and how long it should be. A video for organic TikTok, a paid Meta ad and a product page are different jobs. For creator-style ads, 20 to 30 seconds with something new on screen every few seconds is a good default; our five-beat UGC ad script template explains why. Specify vertical 9:16 unless you need otherwise, and whether you want captions burned in or a clean version.
Call to action
One action, with the exact wording of the link or code. "Link in bio", a discount code, "search for it on TikTok Shop". Not three.
Disclosure
Write down how the video is marked as an ad. In the US, the FTC's guidance says a disclosure should be easy to notice and, for video, in the video itself rather than only in the description; simple words like "ad" or "sponsored" work, vague tags don't. Platforms add their own tools (TikTok's commercial content toggle, Instagram's paid partnership label), and AI-made videos need an AI label too. Our guide to disclosure rules for AI influencers covers both.
Usage rights
Decide this before filming, not after the video does well. Say:
Where you can use it: the creator's account only, your organic channels, paid ads (and on which platforms), your website.
How long: 30, 90 days, a year, or perpetual.
In what form: as delivered, or edited, cut down, with your own captions and hooks.
Whitelisting: whether you can run ads from the creator's own account.
Paid usage and longer terms usually cost more. Getting this wrong is the most common source of disputes between brands and creators.
Deadline and review
Give a date for the first version and the number of revision rounds included. Ask for the first version early and rough, if the creator works that way: changing the hook in a draft is cheap; reshooting a finished video is not.
What to leave out
A full script. Give the message, the moment and the rules; let the creator say it their way. Scripted lines read by a creator sound like an ad.
Every feature. One feature, demonstrated well.
Your brand guidelines PDF. Pull out the three rules that matter on camera (product name spelling, colours to avoid, logo visibility).
Using the same brief with AI
The template works unchanged for an AI creator, with two additions: give real product photos from several angles (the AI draws the product from them), and list the features that work today, so the video never shows the product doing something it can't. That's also what platforms like TikTok Shop now require; see their rules for AI-generated product videos.
How Influgen uses a brief
In Influgen, each AI influencer has an ad manager that writes this brief for every ad: it researches the product from its photos and your description, settles the one message, the moment and the never-list, and the influencer's producer writes the video inside it. You see the brief, approve the stills and then the video, and the influencer labels it as an ad and as AI-made when it posts.
Most AI ads give themselves away through the sound before the picture: dead air, a voice with no room around it, music fighting the words. Here are the seven fixes we now build into every talking ad, with the exact settings we use.
Our AI-made product ads were short, quiet and polished, and they felt fake. So we pulled apart the creator ads that actually sell gadgets on TikTok. Almost all of them do the same five things, and silence isn't one of them.
